UT Faculty Receive Competitive UTHC Conference Grants
UT Faculty Receive Competitive UTHC Conference Grants
November 20, 2023
The UT Humanities Center has awarded competitive grants to three faculty members from UT’s arts and humanities departments in support of collaborative conferences or symposia-style events expanding humanistic research on the UT Knoxville campus.
Georgi Gardiner, an associate professor of philosophy, is the organizer of “Reflections: The Epistemology of Life Experiences Workshop.” The workshop will take place May 27-30, 2024. Rather than adopting a more traditional formal conference format, the event will deliver a new approach to philosophical interactions based on communal conversations and collaborative activities in a nature-rich setting. Participants will discuss life experiences such as miscarriage, self-harm, divorce, parenthood, disability, love, bereavement, phobias, and being a refugee. “We are not disembodied, asocial minds,” Gardiner says. “Location and body position affects what we say and how we think… We must diversify philosophy interactions, in order to diversify philosophy.”
Andrew Sigler, an associate professor of composition in the College of Music, received funding on behalf of UT’s Contemporary Music Festival to host MUTED. MUTED uses music – particularly a muted piano – to explore the lived experiences of Asian women in the United States. This musical project was conceived of and is performed by pianist Eunmi Ko in collaboration with composers Anruo Cheng and Ania Vu. “We believe that by bringing focus to the many challenges facing Asian women in America,” Sigler says, “the festival will not only support new music, but also contribute to an increase in awareness of the humanistic challenges it addresses and thus garner significant social change.” The event will take place February 29-March 1, 2024.
Suzanne Wright, an associate professor in the UT School of Art, will host the fifth annual Southeast US Scholars and Friends of Late Imperial China (SEUSS-FLIC) Conference at UT in February 2024. The conference brings together scholars of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911 CE). This year’s conference will focus on the theme of “Family, Friendship, and Community.” Wright notes that a key goal of the conference is for participants to “establish a greater sense of community and bring energy and enthusiasm to their teaching and research.”
Faculty in UTHC-affiliated fields were invited to apply for up to $4,000 in funding, with priority given to multi-disciplinary projects. Applicants also were required to apply for at least one additional funding source, preferably from an external (non-UT) sponsor. We congratulate Professors Wright, Sigler, and Gardiner and look forward to the new ideas and humanistic conversations that their events will generate.